The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

My Review

“Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.”

I decided it would make sense to go back and start reading the Poirot series from the very beginning, being the logical being that I am (ahem).
Presumably this is the book whereby Agatha Christie wants to introduce Poirot and really wants the reader to get to know him. Thus in this book are lots of descriptions on his character and all his little quirks.
"Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man"

The story begins with Mr Hastings (our narrator) who gets sent home from the war front to recover from an injury. He gets invited to spend his leave with his friend John Cavendish at his old family estate of Styles st Mary. As per usual there is a variety of people staying at this place, including friends, family and staff.

When John's step-mother is found dead in her bed after having been evidently poisoned with strychnine, the blame is automatically put to her new husband, Alfred Inglethorp. They were overheard having an argument earlier on in the day and everyone had always assumed he only married her for her wealth. But of course that would be far too simple, and a very boring book. Investigation proves that all of the evidence against Alfred Inglethorp was planted in an attempt to frame him. So...whodunnit?!

This book/mystery/tale is extremely clever. Almost too clever. I feel like in real life, nobody would actually be enough of a genius to plan this sort of murder. But it does have fantastic entertainment value. Really Agatha Christie was a very clever woman.

Hi, thank you so much for stopping by! Yes the picture is in Northumberland. I'm so lucky to live here. I'm glad you like the blog, I am right in the middle of changing the design over and am getting frustrated as there are some elements that just aren't working! Gah!

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My name is Ellie and I live in Northumberland with my husband and my labrador Bosun. We are on a mission to be as self sufficient as possible through growing our own produce, foraging, collecting our own firewood and one day we plan to have our own small holding. Read about our journey here on my blog. Thank you for stopping by.